ISI's Desperate Bid To Save Musharraf

Alternative
media is the West is falling prey to the ISI propaganda
to save Musharraf. However, it doesn’t take too much to
read between and behind and lines and see the facts and
the ground realities which the ISI operatives are
distorting.

By
Abid Ullah Jan

01/02/08 "ICH"
-- - -ISI operatives in the media in Pakistan have been
busy making noises in an attempt to make Pakistanis, at
least, believe that the US is actually cornering Musharraf.
They blame human rights organizations, NGOs, lawyers and all
other critics of the regime to be working for the US and
serving interests of Indian intelligence agency RAW.

11.
US government agencies are directly funding some private
Pakistani television networks; the channels go into an open
anti-government mode, cashing in on some manufactured and
other real public grievances regarding inflation and
corruption. [1]

12.
Some of Musharraf’s shady and corrupt political allies are
feeding this campaign, hoping to stay in power under a
weakened president. [1]

Some of the absurdities in such argument are obvious.
Musharraf did not do some of the job mentioned above simply
because he could not. Musharraf didn’t hand over Osama, not
because he didn’t want to but because of many other possible
reasons, including the possibility that he is not even
alive.

Similarly not sending troops to Iraq and not recognizing
Israel were absolutely beyond his dictatorial control. He
wouldn’t be there where he is today, if he had done so
besides the long list of his other crimes against the
nation. Musharraf and his masters knew that well.

Similarly there are factual errors in the statements of
these ISI puppets on the show. It is not that Turkey refused
to send troops before Pakistan did. Being a neighbour and
having a stake in the Kurdistan, Turkey was the first
country consulted and was the first to refuse. Turkey said
no to the US in November 2003. Pakistan did so in August
2004.

Musharraf did not destroy the US policy. Pakistani would
feel better off with a straight forward loser than a crooked
winner. If Mush has destroyed the US or its foreign policy,
so be it. We are not interested in destruction of the United
States. Pakistanis just don't want it in their back yard and
for that they need someone straight forward who would not
cheat the US and deceive the public at the same time.

To further support these points the military appointed
civilian analysts claim that when the judicial crisis broke
out, “even Pakistani politicians were surprised at a
well-greased and well-organized lawyers' campaign, complete
with flyers, rented cars and buses, excellent
event-management and media outreach.” So the reaction to
Musharraf’s blunder of removing the Chief justice is
conveniently blame on the United States.

The ISI-backed analysts are given the responsibility to play
anchor roles in current affairs programs on Pakistan
Television. Ahmad Qureshi is one of them and one of his
regular guests is Mr. Ahid Hamid. Together they propagate
lies, alleging that students are being recruited and
organized into a street movement.

Ahmad Qureshi wrote in an article that the regime in
Islamabad is sitting on a “pile of evidence” to prove that
Afghanistan and India provided military equipment to Akbar
Bugti through Karzai regime in Afghanistan. He called Bugti
“a smalltime village thug.” The question is: why is the
regime sitting on this evidence? Why is it not making even a
quarter as much noise as Karzai is making about the
Pakistani support for anti-regime attacks in Afghanistan?
The fact is that the regime in Islamabad has no evidence for
this except the word of mouth by the ISI-backed-analysts.
So, with these points the analysts on ISI pay role are
trying to tell Pakistanis that the US is in fact against
Musharraf.

The ISI operatives blame reaction of the deprived Baluchis
on India and Afghanistan, and indirectly on the United
States with the conjecture that the Baluchis are engaged in
anti-state activities to sour Pakistan-China relation. Ahmad
Qureshi points in one of his article that Bugti’s rebellion
coincided with the Gwadar project entering into its final
stages. “Bugti's real job was to scare the Chinese away and
scuttle Chinese President Hu Jintao's planned visit to
Gwadar a few months later to formally launch the port city,”
he argues. The problem with this conjecture is that the
problem in Baluchistan is not new. Baluchistan and NWFo have
been treated discriminately and disproportionately since
long. The resistance and reaction there is decades old. It
has nothing to do with Gwadar and the supposed US mission to
overthrow Musharraf.

Propagation of nonsense by the ISI-operative starts crossing
limits at a point when they blame the resistance to
Pakistan’s military operations in the tribal areas on the
United States as well.

In one of his articles, Ahmad Qureshi attempts to convince
his readers that it is actually the United States which
recruited Abdullah Mehsud as a replacement to Bugti. The
ISI’s fairy tale goes somewhat like this:

“ United States intelligence and their Indian advisors could
not cultivate an immediate replacement for Bugti. So they
moved to Plan B. They supported Abdullah Mehsud, a Pakistani
Taliban fighter held for five years in Guantanamo Bay, and
then handed him over back to the Afghan government, only to
return to his homeland, Pakistan, to kidnap two Chinese
engineers working in Balochistan, one of whom was eventually
killed during a rescue operation by the Pakistani
government.”

Everyone know that Musharraf could take a stand on
principles after 9/11. He could have refused military
assistance to the US for its invasion and occupation of
Afghanistan. To neutralise that strategic blunder, the ISI
operatives are trying to present Pakistan and Pakistan army
as a target of the US aggression. Of course they are the
primary targets of the US. But Musharraf definitely is not.
To indirectly generate sympathies for Musharraf, the ISI
analysis try to explain how Pakistan military is being
strategically sabotaged, forgetting the fact that this has
nothing to do with the US plans against Musharraf because
Musharraf is the key facilitators of all anti-Pakistan plans
by the neocons and warlords in Washington.

We have been pointing it out since day one of the Mush’s
surrender to the US. It is an exercise in futility by the
ISI to hide Musharraf behind the heat that has gradually
been turned op against Pakistan and its military by the
United States. Musharraf is not a victim in this case. He is
a culprit. Let us assume for a minute that Bugti family is
being financed by the US to undermine Pakistan and his
grandson, Brahmdagh Bugti, is currently enjoying a safe
shelter in the Afghan capital, Kabul, where he continues to
operate and remote-control his assets in Pakistan. The
question is, who is Karzai’s strategic partner? Isn’t it
Musharraf who facilitated invasion and occupation of
Afghanistan? Isn’t it Musharraf who is fighting enemies of
Karzai’s regime? Isn’t it Musharraf who stands shoulder to
shoulder with Karzai and grace his illegitimate moves (such
as the grand jirgas) with his presence? ISI’s tirade against
DC and Kabul fails simply because we don’t see Mush separate
from both of them. They are one in all the crimes against
humanity in this region since October 7, 2001 in particular.

ISI complains through its puppets in the Pakistani media
that saboteurs trained in Afghanistan have been inserted
into Pakistan to aggravate extremist passions in Pakistan,
especially after the Red Mosque operation. There are no
saboteurs from Afghanistan as the regime in Islamabad has
made no public claim about it, let alone presenting some
evidence to support these stories from the ISI.

Of course, Chinese citizens continue to be targeted by
individuals pretending to be related to groups related with
Islamic movement, when no known Islamic group has claimed
responsibility. Of course, there are operations going on in
Pakistan to destabilize it in different ways. However,
Musharraf doesn’t deserve any kind of support because of
that. The reason is that these operations are on, not
because he is not appreciated by the US in the position of
power, but simply because he is there to muddy the waters to
the masses within and analysts abroad. With the Musharraf
regime propaganda about “Islamic extremism,” it is not hard
for the outsiders to use their agents as “religious rebels”
for creating mischief. However, the ISI attempt to parade
Abdul Rashid Ghazi, Baitullah Mehsud, and the Maulana of
Swat as ISI agents just doesn’t hold water.

The ISI-backed “analysts” also claim that “money and weapons
have been fed into the religious movements and al-Qaeda
remnants in the tribal areas.” Interestingly, it is only
Pakistan’s military that is allowed go erect check posts
around the tribal areas, to invade tribal areas, and to do
aerial and electronic surveillance in and around the tribal
areas. Even journalists are not dared to venture there. How
is the CIA then passing the alleged weapons and money to the
al-qaeda remnants in these areas. If Al-Qaeda is in fact
fighting for the US against Pakistan, what is all this fuss
of war on terrorism on the part of Mush and his cronies in
Islamabad? Why does Musharraf hand over anyone caught as
al-Qaeda fighters back to the CIA? And there are a lot more
questions that simply turn such assertions by the ISI
through its puppet totally on their head.

The US has been using and supporting Musharraf, not undermining him as long as he remains the
most obedient slave.

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